Worldwide PC Shipments Grew For the First Time in Six Years in Q2 of 2018

Worldwide PC shipments totaled 62.1 million units in the second quarter of 2018, a 1.4 percent increase from the second quarter of 2017, according to preliminary results by Gartner, Inc. This is the first quarter of year-over-year global PC shipment growth since the first quarter of 2012.

All regions experienced some growth compared with a year ago. While the results are a positive result for the PC industry, Gartner analysts said this sign of market stability is not enough to declare a PC industry recovery just yet.

"PC shipment growth in the second quarter of 2018 was driven by demand in the business market, which was offset by declining shipments in the consumer segment," said Mikako Kitagawa, principal analyst at Gartner. "In the consumer space, the fundamental market structure, due to changes on PC user behavior, still remains, and continues to impact market growth. Consumers are using their smartphones for even more daily tasks, such as checking social media, calendaring, banking and shopping, which is reducing the need for a consumer PC.

"In the business segment, PC momentum will weaken in two years when the replacement peak for Windows 10 passes. PC vendors should look for ways to maintain growth in the business market as the Windows 10 upgrade cycle tails off."

With the completion of Lenovo's joint venture with Fujitsu, three out of four PCs were shipped by the top five PC vendors in the second quarter of 2018. With the inclusion of Fujitsu’s PC shipments due to the joint venture (a formation of Joint Venture with Fujitsu), Lenovo was in a virtual tie with HP Inc. for the top spot in the second quarter of 2018 based on global PC shipments (see Table 1). All of the top five PC vendors experienced an increase in worldwide PC shipments in the quarter.

Notes: Data includes desk-based PCs, notebook PCs and ultramobile premiums (such as Microsoft Surface), but not Chromebooks or iPads. All data is estimated based on a preliminary study. Final estimates will be subject to change. The statistics are based on shipments selling into channels. Numbers may not add up to totals shown due to rounding.*Lenovo's results include Fujitsu's units starting in 2Q18 to reflect the joint venture that closed in May 2018.Source: Gartner (July 2018)

HP Inc. had its third consecutive quarter of year-over-year PC shipment growth. HP Inc. maintained steady growth across all regions, except the U.S. In the other regions, its shipment growth well exceeded the regional averages. Lenovo experienced its highest growth rate since the first quarter of 2015.

While Dell's competitors have shown PC shipment declines periodically in the past two years, Dell's shipments did not decline during this time because of its strong focus on growth areas, especially in the commercial segment, as well as cutting off unprofitable businesses.

In the U.S. PC market, the industry returned to growth after six consecutive quarters of shipment declines. In the second quarter of 2018, U.S. PC shipments totaled 14.5 million units, a 1.7 percent increase from the same period last year (see Table 2). HP Inc. continued to be the market leader in the U.S., but Dell closed the gap, as Dell's U.S. PC shipments increased 7.2 percent.

"In the U.S., business PC demand was particularly strong among the public sector as the second quarter is typically PC buying season among government and education buyers," Ms. Kitagawa said. "Desk-based PC growth was attributed to continued high usage of desk-based PCs in the U.S. public sectors. Mobile PCs grew in the U.S., but strong Chromebook demand in the education market adversely affected PC growth. Overall, Chromebooks grew 8 percent in the U.S., but Chromebooks are not included in the PC market statistics."

Notes: Data includes desk-based PCs, notebook PCs and ultramobile premiums (such as Microsoft Surface), but not Chromebooks or iPads. All data is estimated based on a preliminary study. Final estimates will be subject to change. The statistics are based on shipments selling into channels. Numbers may not add up to totals shown due to rounding.

*Lenovo's results include Fujitsu's units starting in 2Q18 to reflect the joint venture that closed in May 2018.Source: Gartner (July 2018)

PC shipments in EMEA reached 17.4 million units in the second quarter of 2018, a 1.3 percent increase year over year. In Western Europe, demand was strong for business PCs in Germany and the U.K. Eurasia, which includes Russia, remained the growth region in EMEA. While the second quarter is usually a slower quarter in terms of PC demand, several countries, such as Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan, continued to see increasing consumer demand.

PC shipments in Asia/Pacific totaled 21.3 million units, a 0.1 percent increase from the second quarter of 2017. India, Indonesia, Thailand and other emerging markets in Asia showed improvement in the commercial segment due to demand for replacing aging PCs and upgrading to Windows 10. In China, PC shipments declined 3.6 percent year over year as some business procurements have been postponed to 2019, and the consumer market is saturated.

These results are preliminary. Final statistics will be available soon to clients of Gartner's PC Quarterly Statistics Worldwide by Region program. This program offers a comprehensive and timely picture of the worldwide PC market, allowing product planning, distribution, marketing and sales organizations to keep abreast of key issues and their future implications around the globe.

Mobo Sales Worldwide Fall - 09/08/2017 07:32 AM
The global motherboard shipments are going to reach 45 million units in 2017 and could drop further in 2018 as demand continues to be shrinking, according to sources from the upstream supply chain....

#5564637 Posted on: 07/13/2018 11:03 AM
Not sure 1.4% quarter year on year is much significance. Bought a PC for my sisters household some 6 years ago and no one uses it. Everyones on tablets or phones. Getting up, sitting upright in a chair to face a screen does not seem worth the effort to many peeps anymore.

k3vst3r
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#5564649 Posted on: 07/13/2018 11:59 AM
Also pc's take up more space aka desk/screen/chair, many just use mobiles/tablets or laptops.

vbetts
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#5564655 Posted on: 07/13/2018 12:27 PM
I think the biggest reason is people are now buying less tablets, they've gone out of that whole craze. Tablets are nice, but really the only marketable tablet that is still being updated and supported today is the iPad line. Now sure, you can get an iPad at $329, but storage is limited, the screen is not the biggest, and you're kind of limited on what you can do...

I will say this though, I had a semester course that work gave me an iPad Pro with the keyboard to do homework and study on, and it was actually a pleasant experience. Very nice screen, worked quick and easy, the keyboard case worked great, and all the office apps I would use on a laptop or desktop worked like a charm no problem on it. But.....The 12" Pro costs $800 plus the keyboard that I think is like $180 or so? For that price, you could buy a decent laptop or build a decent desktop.

So for devices like the iPad Pro, they are tablets that can replace a full computer system for say office and school work. But when a number of tablets now are running Windows instead of a forked version of Android, they aren't all that worth it over a conventional laptop that can even possibly have a touch screen...

wavetrex
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#5564675 Posted on: 07/13/2018 01:43 PM

Everyone wastes their lives on Facebook and Youtube.... Facetube.

Fixed that for you.

A person who actually wants to do something useful or interesting with a computer... gets a PC.

Fox2232
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#5564683 Posted on: 07/13/2018 02:19 PM
Tablets have quite big problem. Their size. 5~6'' tablet is basically bigger cellphone and not very usable outside phone things you do on phone.7~8'' are good for gaming, comfortable screen size, well reachable controls.9~10'' good for some productivity, but already bit too large for comfortable game handling.Above that, just productivity.

I had them all, and fact that one size does not fit all sux. I would need to own 2 different tablets for different things and cellphone at same time.Instead one PC does it all. at cost of usually non-touch input. Solution for tablets would be wireless gamepad support. Some games support gampads. But for rest one would need button to touch mapping/stick to touch mapping. This is not integrated part of android. You need specialized tools and they need rooted prone/tablet.It is really bad oversight from google. Same as mouse support where all buttons get detected as LMB.

I still have some tablets which I do not use as they are kind of old. And if I were to get tablet like device, it would be 12~13'' notebook with touch and 360degrees screen rotation. (Tablet functionality would be secondary, but welcome feature.)

XP-200
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#5564684 Posted on: 07/13/2018 02:22 PM
Yes!!, PC master race. lol

Although i sometimes wonder what the majority of PC users are doing with their PC's, i mean i don't expect 230 million copies of a PC game to be sold as the norm but you would think with so many PC's in the world the figure would be fairly high, but that steam players list that was leaked recently sure states otherwise, so what are the majority of PC buyers doing with their PC's and why are they keeping it a secret from me. lol

Fox2232
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#5564688 Posted on: 07/13/2018 02:31 PM
Yes!!, PC master race. lol

Although i sometimes wonder what the majority of PC users are doing with their PC's, i mean i don't expect 230 million copies of a PC game to be sold as the norm but you would think with so many PC's in the world the figure would be fairly high, but that steam players list that was leaked recently sure states otherwise, so what are the majority of PC buyers doing with their PC's and why are they keeping it a secret from me. lolWell, I hide stuff from pervy eyes too. It is natural thing to do But I hint you ~250 games on steam. Not enough time to play them.

#5564696 Posted on: 07/13/2018 03:06 PM
its because before ryzen there was nothing to upgrade to

TestDriver
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#5564715 Posted on: 07/13/2018 04:38 PM

its because before ryzen there was nothing to upgrade to

My thought also

D3M1G0D
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#5564737 Posted on: 07/13/2018 06:28 PM

So for devices like the iPad Pro, they are tablets that can replace a full computer system for say office and school work. But when a number of tablets now are running Windows instead of a forked version of Android, they aren't all that worth it over a conventional laptop that can even possibly have a touch screen...

I seriously doubt that the iPad Pro can replace a full computer for office work. Most of the people in my office use massive Excel spreadsheets (they're fund accountants) and use multiple monitors to maximize productivity (iPad does not support external monitors). Having to touch the screen for pointer input can also get extremely tiring as the iPad does not support a mouse. You also can't easily transfer data back and forth and trying to do a web conference or presentation would be problematic (no video out). Seriously, I can't think of any FA in our office who would consider the iPad an appropriate work device (if tablets are needed then Windows tablets would suffice).

0blivious
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#5564783 Posted on: 07/13/2018 11:47 PM
I concur with a couple reasons. There was no compelling reason to upgrade (still really isn't anything earth shattering now but at least Ryzen was something). Everyone already bought their tablets or got over the idea that it could replace their PC. It sort of can but it leaves much to be desired for any power user. You also don't need to replace tablets like phones so they last longer.

Whatever it is, good news for geeks.

Hypernaut
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#5564849 Posted on: 07/14/2018 09:42 AM
What we need is the next q6600 or 2500K. I still have the 2500k. No reason to upgrade. Similar IPC speeds to a Ryzen and it's 7 years old.

toptek
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#5564885 Posted on: 07/14/2018 02:32 PM
Worldwide PC shipments totaled 62.1 million units in the second quarter of 2018, a 1.4 percent increase from the second quarter of 2017, according to preliminary results by Gartner, Inc. This is the f...